Irvine / Jacob, Jr. / Jennings / Keller / Kowierschke

Eleanor S. Irvine, MD (1982) 

Dr. Eleanor Solomon Gould Irvine was born on September 12, 1919 in Moultonboro, New Hampshire to James and Mary Solomon. She married Everett W. Irvine Jr., MD, a pathologist in Wichita Falls, and they had four children Audrey Ann, Everett Wallace, Eleanor Rae, and James Nelson. After Dr. Everett Irvine's passing, Dr. Irvine married Joel Onley. 

Dr. Irvine died on June 17, 2015 at Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Before going to medical school, Dr. Irvine had received an MS degree in zoology and a PhD in anatomy. She attended Elmira College in New York and Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. While teaching at Tulane, she decided to go to medical school and received her MD degree in 1951. 

Dr. Irvine did an internship at Harper Hospital in Detroit and completed her pathology training at the University of California in San Francisco. After becoming board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, she moved to Wichita Falls, Texas where she established a successful private practice. At the time, Wichita Falls and the surrounding areas where particularly underserved leaving Dr. Irvine to work as a consultant for as many as eighteen hospitals at one time. 

in 1957, Dr. Irvine opened a private reference laboratory in Wichita Falls with fellow pathologist, Dr. Wallace. I n 1960, Dr. Irvine moved to Bethania Hospital in Wichita Falls where she was director of laboratories until 1991. She was elected chief of staff in 1968 and again in 1978. 

Before retiring in 1993, Dr. Irvine also operated several independent laboratories in Texas and Oklahoma. In 1994, she served as medical director of the Wichita Falls Satellite Laboratory of the MetWest/Damon Laboratories of Dallas, and the same year won the Distinguished Service Award by the Wichita County Medical Society. 

Dr. Irvine served as president of the Wichita County Medical Society in 1979. She also served as delegate to the Texas Medical Association, and was a member of the first committee of the North Texas Medical Foundation. She was instrumental in establishing the Wichita Falls' family practice residency training program, which is affiliated with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She was a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. 

Dr. Irvine was a dedicated teacher having spearheaded the development of the MLT program at Midwestern State University at Wichita Falls. Her work with this program won her national recognition, and, as a result, she worked with the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Allied Health Committee of Texas' Coordinating Board of Higher Education, and the Advisory Committee of the American Association of Medical Assistants. Additionally, Dr. Irvine volunteered in local vaccination drives, provided health education in the local elementary schools, and rang the bell for the Salvation Army. 

When Dr. Irvine came to Texas, she was not allowed to buy property or make contracts, hindering her ability to establish a private practice. She was eventually granted feme sole so that she could establish a private practice. In 1985, Dr. Irvine was elected to the North Texas Women's Hall of Fame

Dr. Irvine served as president of the TSP in 1982. Prior to her presidency, she had also served as secretary and vice president. She was the TSP representative to the TMA Socioeconomic Council. 

Dr. Irvine received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award in 1994 for her work in pathology. 

McCoy, T.A., Maxwell, M., Irvine, E., & Sartorelli, A.C. (1959). Two nutritional variants of cultured Jensen sarcoma cells. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 100(4), 862-865.

Curran, J.M., Chen, R., Stokes, R., Irvine, E., Graham, D., Gubbins, E., ... & Hunt, J.A. (2010). Nanoscale definition of substrate materials to direct human adult stem cells towards tissue specific populations. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 21(3), 1021-1029.

Norman H. Jacob, Jr., MD (1967)

Dr. Norman Henry Jacob, Jr. was born in Yorktown, Texas on September 4, 1920 to Ella Peters and Norman Henry Jacob, Sr. Dr. Jacob had a brother who died of a brain tumor around the time that Dr. Jacob was going to leave for college. He decided to remain with his parents for a year to work and save money before pursuing medicine. 

Dr. Jacob met Alice Paul Tyson while doing his rotating internship in San Antonio, Texas. They were married in 1946 and had four children, Linda, Carol, Mark, and Paula. 

Dr. Jacob died on December 14, 2009 in San Antonio. 

In 1939, Dr. Jacob attended Texas Lutheran College as a pre-med student. He graduated cum laude in 1940, and then went to The University of Texas in Austin. He worked while in school, but continued to perform well academically. He was elected to Alpha Epsilon Delta, the university's pre-health honor society and completed his academic work in 1941.

After graduation, Dr. Jacob joined the Army Reserve but was deferred for academic reasons. He was accepted into The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and for the following three years, he was on special assignment by the military as a Private First Class in the Army until his graduation in June, 1945 when he was commissioned as First Lieutenant in the Army Reserve. 

Dr. Jacob began a general rotating internship at the Santa Rosa Medical Center in San Antonio in 1945, the same year that he met Alice. After completing his internship, he was placed on active duty as a Captain and assigned to the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Wadsworth, Kansas. While there, he became interested in pathology, and stayed an extra year to complete his residency. 

Dr. Jacob then did a residency in Minnesota at the recommendation of Dr. Helwig, who he had met in Wadsworth. After three years in Minnesota, Dr. Jacob and his family moved back to San Antonio where he began practicing at Santa Rose Medical Center. While there he served a term as chief of staff. He was board certified in clinical pathology in 1953 and was appointed clinical professor of pathology at The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio where he worked with students who did their residencies at Santa Rosa Medical Center. 

Dr. Jacob was an active member of Bexar County Medical Society, serving on its executive committee, blood bank committee, and tumor registry. He served as a delegate to the College of Pathologists and as chairman of the board of South Texas Regional Blood Bank. Dr. Jacob also worked with the Texas Society for Medical Technology where he helped develop the Travelling Seminars Team. 

Dr. Jacob remained head of the laboratory at N.H. Jacob & Associates at Santa Rosa until he retired in 1987. 

Dr. Jacob became a member of the TSP in 1953 and served on many of its committees, most notably on the Medical Technology Committee. 

He served as president of the TSP in 1968 and was active in the development of direct patient billing for the professional component of the laboratory tests, which involved a complete change in the way hospitals and pathologists worked together. He worked closely with Blue Cross or Blue Shield to honor bills directed to patients for the laboratory component. 

Jacob Jr, N.H. (1962). Relationship of phenolic acid excretion to tumors of neural crest origin. Texas state journal of medicine, 58, 893-896.

Frank L. Jennings, MD (1975)

Dr. Frank Lamont Jennings, known as Lamont by his friends, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1921 and grew up in a Minnesota suburb. He and his parents eventually moved to Indiana where he attended Indiana University. 

Dr. Jennings passed away on July 15, 206 in Ohio. 

 Dr. Jennings graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1947 and was awarded the Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship at the University of Chicago where he studied pathologies related to radiation injury. He served a rotating internship and did a four-year residency, and in 1955 he became board certified in anatomic pathology. 

Also in 1955, Dr. Jennings was drafted into the military, and was assigned to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. During this time, Dr. Jennings conducted several studies on the effects of radiation exposure and worked with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission on the review of radiation injuries to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1957, he became one of several members of the medical team that was sent to Frenchman Flats in Nevada for atomic bomb tests. Later that year, he returned to the University of Chicago as assistant professor in the Department of Pathology. 

Dr. Jennings joined the pathology department at The University of Texas Medical Branch in 1960 at the invitation of Drs. Howard Hopps and Kenneth Earle. He served as section chief of surgical pathology. In 1963, he was promoted to professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology. While at UTMB, he continued his research on the pathologic effects of radiation and expanded his studies to protein metabolism and tumor growth. Notably, Dr. Jennings spearheaded the formation of the Galveston rather than being sent to Harris County. Additionally, Dr. Jennings served on the Board of Governors for the College of American Pathologists. 

In 1977, Dr. Jennings left Texas to head the pathology department at a new medical school at Wright State University in Ohio. 

Dr. Jennings served as president of the TSP in 1975 and received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award in 1976 for his contributions to the field of pathology. 

Dr. Jennings wrote several reviews on radiology texts for the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Jennings, F.L, (1949). Effect of protein depletion upon susceptibility of rats to total body irradiation. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 72(2), 487-491.

Jennings, F.L. (1952). Comparison of parenteral and oral protein feeding on radiation susceptibility in protein-depleted rat. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 80(1), 10-13.

Violet H. Keiller, MD (1930)

Dr. Violet Hannah Keiller was born on October 27, 1887 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Dr. William Keiller and Eliza Henrietta McLaughlin Keiller. She had two sisters, Mabel and Margaret, and one brother, Thomas. Dr. Keiller came to the United States with her parents in 1891 when her father became the first professor of anatomy at The University of Texas Medical Branch. 

Dr. Keiller died of a heart attack on September 24, 1958. 

Dr. Keiller received her bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia in 1910 and received her MD degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1914. She was one of only three women in her graduating class. Dr. Keiller did not do an internship, but immediately started assisting Dr. James E. Thompson, who was professor of surgery at UTMB. She taught histology and eventually became a professor of surgical pathology. 

In 1927, Dr. Keiller moved to Houston to practice pathology at Hermann Hospital where she specialized in cancer diagnosis. She continued teaching at UTMB, returning to Galveston two days out of the week to teach classes. She eventually became chief pathologist at Hermann Hospital, and remained there until her retirement in 1953. 

When Baylor University College of Medicine moved to Houston in 1943, Dr. Keiller accepted a professorship there and became emeritus professor of pathology after her retirement. Dr. Keiller continued consulting until near the end of her life when her health limited her activities. Known as the "dean" of Houston pathologists, Dr. Keiller had consulted for Hermann Hospital, M.D. Anderson Hospital, and the Tumor Institute. In honor of her tenure and outstanding work, after her retirement the Violet H. Keiller Award was established at Hermann Hospital by former interns and residents as an award to honor one outstanding student each year. 

Among her work with professional organizations, Dr. Keiller was a member of Harris County Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Pathology. She was a diplomat of the American Board of Pathology and was a long-time member of the Texas Medical Association. She was the distinction of being the only female member of the Texas Surgical Society during its first fifty years. 

In 1982, twenty-four years after she died, the new surgical pathology laboratory at Hermann Hospital was named in Dr. Keiller's honor and has on display the tiny black microscope that she used. 

Dr. Keiller was one of the first female members of the TSP. She served as its first female president in 1930. Her presidency was during a time when there were many technological advances in medicine, including in the area of tumor diagnosis. 

An April, 1916 issue of the Texas Medical Journal devoted its issue to "a demonstration of what women are doing in the practice of medicine in Texas." Dr. Keiller was one of the contributors. 

Keiller, V.H. (1922). A contribution to the anatomy of spina bifida. Brain, 45(1), 31-103. (Cited by 40)

Tennent, D.H., & Keiller, V.H., (1911). The anatomy of Pentaceros reticulatus

Sidney W. Kowierschke, MD (1974)

Dr. Sidney "Sid" Wayne Kowierschke was born on April 4, 1931 in Mason, Texas to Martin and Eoline Kowierschke. He had two sisters, Iva and Marlene. Dr. Kowierschke married Katye Harper, and they had four daughters, Linda, Sandra, Elaine, and Karen. 

Dr. Kowierschke died on May 5, 1985 in Huntsville, Texas at the age of 54 due to complications from cancer. 

Dr. Kowierschke earned his bachelor's degree from Texas Lutheran College in Seguin, Texas in 1951. He went to medical school at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and obtained his MD degree in 1957. He completed an internship and two years of residency at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas under the leadership of Dr. John L. Goforth. He then completed two years of residency in pathology at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas under Dr. George Race. He became board certified in anatomical and clinical pathology in 1962 and 1963. 

In 1963, after completing a tour of duty as a naval commander in Corpus Christi, Dr. Kowierschke moved to Bryan, Texas to open a pathology laboratory. He also served as a pathologist in El Paso and Huntsville, but eventually returned to Bryan in 1977. In 1981, he joined Huntsville Pathology Associates. 

Dr. Kowierschke was a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. 

Dr. Kowierschke became a member of the TSP in 1964 and served as its president in 1974. He was president of the TSP during a time when several federal laws were passed that had direct implications for the field of pathology. It was also during this time that the TSP decided to discontinue it's quality control programs since the ASCP and the CAP had established national programs. 

Harrison, R.H., Baird, J.M., & Kowierschke, S.W. (1981). Renal oncocytoma: ten-year follow-up. Urology, 17(6), 596-599.

Walton Jr, T.T., Elmendorf, E.A., & Kowierschke, S.W. (1965). Tuberculosis enterocolitis. Texas medicine, 61(11), 830-832.